Events

Ongoing

Calls for Submission

Geneviève Thauvette, "Breaking News"

Geneviève Thauvette
"Breaking News"

Galerie St-Laurent + Hill is pleased to present an exhibition of new photographs by Geneviève Thauvette.

Bio

Geneviève Thauvette is a Franco-Ontarian artist currently residing in Toronto. Her photographs have been displayed internationally, notably at the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival, the Perth International Arts Festival (Australia), the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and the VIe Jeux de la Francophonie in Beirut where she won the gold medal for Canada. Her series Les quintuplées Dionne have been acquired by the Canadian Museum of History and the City of Ottawa Fine Art Collection. She is a 2013 recipient of the FlashForward emerging artists award and has earned several grants, including a 2011 and 2016 Artist Production Grant from the Ontario Arts Council and the 2016 Artists in the Library grant from the Toronto Arts Council.

Thauvette presented Cake is Freedom, a performative installation at Ottawa’s inaugural Nuit Blanche, which was the subject of a Radio-Canada documentary (Rendez-vous Artv). Geneviève has presented many photo workshops and been a part of numerous juries. In 2012 and 2016 respectively, she was chosen to select the final participating artists for the North-American and Caribbean delegations for the VIIe and VIIIe Jeux de la Francophonie. She was also a photography competition jury member during the 2013 Games held in Nice and president of the jury at the 2017 Games in Abidjan.

Thauvette is represented by St-Laurent + Hill in Ottawa and Eye Buy Art

Artist Statement

"Breaking News" consists of a series of absurdist photographic images that satirize the format and content of news reports. I play a panoply of female journalists in bright clothes and makeup while displaying disturbing and disproportionate expressions.

New technologies are being developped that can completely falsify an audio recording or transform one's features to seamlessly emulate another's. Information is no longer necessarily brokered by traditional channels. The intergrity and veracity of facts are threatened by individuals in power and the media itself. This series “breaks” the news through parody and caricature. Heavy subject matter, such as abductions, floods, disasters, televised suicides and dictatorships, is depicted in a surreal and jocular newsroom simulation. However, despite the perceived levity we must ask a dark question: what is happening to the integrity of the news or the hierarchy of importance of events?

Breaking News is interested in the precarious ways information is now shared and the insecurity surrounding the authority of facts. The headlines or titles of the works highlight the ridiculous events portrayed. The images are heavily manipulated in Photoshop and hand painted, the latter being a process employed in my previous works. This work also continues to incorporate the use of self-portraits and theatricality. However, this is done with a bolder application of colour and digital manipulation while pushing my subjects further into the burlesque.